Dutch Call Russian Ambassador to Hague Meeting Over Flight MH17

AMSTERDAM–Tensions between the Netherlands and Russia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 deepened Friday after Dutch authorities called for a meeting with Russia’s ambassador.

Netherlands Foreign Minister
Bert Koenders summoned the Russian ambassador to The Hague after Moscow slammed a Dutch-led criminal investigation into the July 2014 crash that killed all 298 people on board.

Russia’s criticism was “unsubstantiated” and “unacceptable,” Mr. Koenders said. “Given the convincing nature of the evidence, Russia should respect the results that have been presented, rather than impugning the investigation and sowing doubt,” he said.

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday that the Buk missile system used to shoot down the passenger plane came from Russia and was fired from eastern Ukraine, an area controlled at the time by pro-Russian separatists. The system was returned to Russia after the incident, investigators said.

The findings were rejected by Moscow. A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry called the report “biased and politically motivated.” She said the investigators “prevented Moscow from fully participating in the investigative process.”

Dutch Call Russian Ambassador to Hague Meeting Over Flight MH17

AMSTERDAM–Tensions between the Netherlands and Russia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 deepened Friday after Dutch authorities called for a meeting with Russia’s ambassador.

Netherlands Foreign Minister
Bert Koenders summoned the Russian ambassador to The Hague after Moscow slammed a Dutch-led criminal investigation into the July 2014 crash that killed all 298 people on board.

Russia’s criticism was “unsubstantiated” and “unacceptable,” Mr. Koenders said. “Given the convincing nature of the evidence, Russia should respect the results that have been presented, rather than impugning the investigation and sowing doubt,” he said.

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday that the Buk missile system used to shoot down the passenger plane came from Russia and was fired from eastern Ukraine, an area controlled at the time by pro-Russian separatists. The system was returned to Russia after the incident, investigators said.

The findings were rejected by Moscow. A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry called the report “biased and politically motivated.” She said the investigators “prevented Moscow from fully participating in the investigative process.”

Missile System That Downed MH17 Said to Be From Russia

Dutch prosecutors investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 said the system used to shoot down the plane over Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board, originated in Russia.

Officials said Wednesday there was “no doubt” that the sophisticated Buk missile was fired from eastern Ukraine, an area controlled at the time by pro-Russian separatists. The vehicle used to fire the missile returned to Russia after the incident, investigators said.

Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke, who is in charge of the international investigation, said he was “fully confident” that if more progress were made, those responsible for launching the missile could be brought to trial. Investigators said they had identified about 100 people potentially responsible for downing the plane or transporting the missile.

The criminal probe based its conclusions on intercepted communications and other evidence, including photos of the missile launcher. It said no other planes were in the vicinity, ruling out the possibility that a military plane had shot down the airliner.

Wednesday’s report marked the latest step in an extensive international investigation into the crash of the Boeing 777 jetliner, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam in July 2014 when it plunged out of the sky. Most of the fatalities were Dutch.

The report addressed issues not covered in an air-safety probe last year, also led by the Netherlands, that determined a sophisticated Russian antiaircraft missile brought down the plane. Pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops were fighting for control of the region at the time.

Investigators said the missile was launched from farmland close to the village of Pervomaiskyi was identified as the launch site of the missile. After the weapon was fired, the system was reloaded onto a truck and transported back to Russia. The convoy crossed the Russian border during the night, investigators said.

“The Buk came from Russia and returned to Russia,” Mr. Westerbeke said. He declined to comment when asked about Russia’s possible involvement in the crash.

Ukraine has accused Russia-backed militants operating in the area of launching the missile. Russia and the rebels it supports have said Ukrainian forces were responsible.

Relatives of the victims have expressed anger at the slow pace of the criminal probe and that the perpetrators still haven’t been identified and brought to justice. Robby Oehlers, whose 20-year-old cousin Daisy was on board Flight 17, said he feared it could take years before the suspects were put on trial. “I hoped things were moving faster,” he said.

It is unclear where the suspects might eventually be prosecuted. Russia last year vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have established an international criminal tribunal to investigate the downing of the plane. Mr. Westerbeke, the Dutch prosecutor, said the suspects first needed to be identified before it was decided where they would face trial.

The mandate for the investigation team has been extended to at least early 2018 as it seeks more information to help to pinpoint who made the decision to fire the missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the Russian military had released detailed information on the incident, while other countries hadn’t, the news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, expressed disappointment in the Dutch report, calling it “biased and politically motivated.” She said investigators probing the crash “prevented Moscow from fully participating in the investigative process,” adding: “It sounds like a cruel joke, but they made Ukraine a full member of the Joint Investigation Team, giving it opportunity to fake the evidence and benefit from the situation.”

In a statement, the Ukrainian foreign ministry welcomed the release of the report, saying the information “points to the direct involvement of the state-aggressor in downing the aircraft,” a reference to Russia.

The Russian maker of the missile system that shot down the plane also offered a version to counter the Dutch report.

Mikhail Malyshevsky, the chief designer of arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey, said in a lengthy technical briefing in Moscow on Wednesday that an 9M38-series missile shot down the aircraft, but that it was launched from a different direction than the one pinpointed by Dutch investigators. Mr. Malyshevsky said the Russian military had upgraded to a more modern missile in 2005, while the 9M38 was in the Ukrainian military inventory.

RT @bellingcat: The JIT has excluded the air to air scenario (SU-25 etc) #MH17

Will never forget the week @AlexisFlynn & I spent in the Netherlands covering #MH17. May the families find peace https://t.co/MaWehYj8WC

MH17 Investigation Report to Provide More Clues on Crash

By Maarten Van Tartwijk

NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands—Dutch prosecutors investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 more than two years ago are set to deliver their initial findings Wednesday on the downing of the jetliner.

Dutch officials have said that in Wednesday’s report they would provide more information about the missile that struck the passenger plane and the exact location from where the weapon was fired. But they won’t shed more light on the identity of the suspected perpetrators. That part of the probe could take more time, they have said.

The jetliner operated by Malaysia Airlines was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it plunged out of the sky over eastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops were fighting for control of the region at the time. Most of the fatalities were Dutch.

Ukraine has accused Russian-backed militants operating in the area where the missile was launched. Russia and the rebels it supports have said Ukrainian forces were responsible.

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have established an international criminal tribunal to investigate the downing of the plane.

The Dutch Safety Board, which led the air-safety probe, last October said a Russian-made Buk missile system struck the Boeing aircraft, causing it to break apart and plunge to the ground. The launch location was within a 320-square-kilometer (124-square-mile) area in eastern Ukraine, the safety board said, without identifying who fired the missile.

Relatives of the victims have expressed anger at the slow pace of the criminal investigation and that, more than two years after the crash, the perpetrators still haven’t been identified and brought to justice.

European Authorities Set Up Conflict-Zone Intelligence-Sharing System for Airlines

By Andy Pasztor

European intelligence agencies and air-safety officials have created the first formal intelligence-sharing network to warn the region’s airlines about dangers of overflying various conflict zones world-wide.

The new system seeks to coordinate and update such threat assessments under the auspices of the European Union, and then quickly disseminate the information to European carriers, according to the region’s top aviation safety official.

Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency, described the effort in an interview Thursday. He said the initiative, under discussion since late 2014, was approved days earlier by the EU’s Council of Ministers.

The goal, Mr. Ky said, is to ensure his agency can provide carriers with the best possible guidance about avoiding airspace where fighting on the ground poses potential hazards for commercial aircraft.

The advisories won’t be binding on airlines, but they are intended to offer the most comprehensive and timely assessment of such in-flight hazards covering parts of the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.

“Now we have the mechanism for the intelligence services” of EU countries to meet and come up with joint threat assessments about specific areas, Mr. Ky said. EASA is involved, he said, “because we are the ones who are asking the questions” about specific conflict zones, and then have the responsibility to consult with airlines before issuing public advisories. Procedures for emergency consultations also have been developed.

“I am sure it will help” identify hot spots more rapidly, according to Mr. Ky, allowing EASA to move beyond its historic role of merely reacting when the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, for instance, issues its own airspace warnings. Big international carriers also conduct separate threat assessments—typically also using some nongovernmental security data—before deciding to maintain or shift flights over conflict zones.

The European move was sparked by the July 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet by a Russian-built antiaircraft missile while cruising over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Fallout from the incident prompted stepped-up efforts by international aviation authorities and European politicians to pinpoint conflict zones that ought to be deemed off-limits to airliners.

Until now, intelligence experts from individual European governments conducted separate threat assessments of such dangers confronting airlines, and information sharing was largely informal. EASA felt it was hamstrung by the lack of coordination, and Mr. Ky pushed hard for procedural changes.

Now, according to the EASA chief, a process has been put in place for Europe’s intelligence community to reach consensus and speak with a unified voice when it comes to delineating threat levels covering any specific swath of airspace.

The aviation arm of the United Nations previously set up its own information-sharing program dealing with conflict zones around the globe, but that doesn’t have the benefit of close cooperation with intelligence agencies.

Shortly after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, EASA started looking for ways to work more closely with European military and intelligence personnel to share relevant security information. The move to expand EASA’s traditional safety-oversight role initially created friction with some industry officials and EU politicians, but Mr. Ky suggested most of those issues have been resolved.

LONDON—Intelligence agencies should support a European Union effort to provide airlines with more timely information about the risk from flights near war zones, a task force set up in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine said Thursday.

The panel also called for the European Aviation Safety Agency, the region’s safety regulator, to set up a system for sharing information on flying near conflict zones. It would contain threat information or EU risk assessments and try to address shortcomings that the panel found with a similar United Nations-backed information dissemination effort.

Airlines should use the information to formulate their flight plans and share their own risk assessments with their national authorities and, ideally, with the European network, the European task force said.

The Malaysia Airlines plane was passing through airspace Ukraine had declared safe even though military planes in the region had been downed by antiaircraft weapons in preceding days.

The incident spurred regulators globally to examine how to better alert airlines about potential threats when flying near combat zones, and the EU set up the task force to study the issue.

“The threat of terrorism to civil aviation is likely to remain high in the foreseeable future,” EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc said, adding that the “time for action is now.”

The EASA information-sharing system would come on top of one set up by the United Nations’ air-safety body, the International Civil Aviation Organization, in the wake of the crash. The ICAO portal has drawn criticism for lacking timeliness in publishing airspace alerts.

The delay in ICAO’s dissemination of information on conflict zones has “created a need for an alternate information sharing and distribution process taking place at European level,” the task force said.

ICAO officials have previously said they need to provide affected countries an opportunity to respond to outside risk assessments, causing the delay in publishing some of the airspace warnings.

EASA executive director Patrick Key said the Germany-based agency would set up the information-sharing system “as soon as possible.”

EU member states are being urged to set up national systems to share risk information with their airlines and share the information among each other. The countries’ intelligence agencies should back those activities, the task force said.

The report is being submitted to the Dutch president of the rotating EU Council for follow-up action.

Airline Safety Alerting System Created After MH17 Tragedy Seen as Lagging

By Robert Wall

DUBLIN—A global system to share information about threats to commercial airline flights established after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is still not robust enough, say airline regulators and industry officials, with government concerns about information still trumping security considerations.

But providing useful information needs to be done “a bit faster,” Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association that represents more than 200 carriers told reporters on Monday.

“Within the security areas of government there is a natural reluctance to share,” he said. However, he added, “what’s the point of having this information if it is not passed on.”

The Boeing Co. 777 jetliner was cruising at 33,000 feet in airspace the Ukrainian government had declared safe even after some military aircraft were brought down at lower altitudes during intense fighting between the country’s armed forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The Dutch safety board called for governments to be more active in reporting on threats and urged other countries also to alert carriers in case they see a threat outside their own borders.

“We know we need to refine the capabilities of the repository,” Stephen Creamer, director of ICAO’s Air Navigation Bureau told an aviation security conference here. The information in the online database is often delayed. It can take 72 hours or more for recommendations made by one member state about airspace in another country to become public, he said.

In the aftermath of the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane, some airspace is now regularly avoided by carriers as regulators have issued warnings about airspace in conflict zones. Flight routes between the Middle East and Europe have largely shifted from Iraqi airspace to traversing Iran. Many airlines also are avoiding Syrian airspace because of the fighting in the country.

About a half-dozen countries have so far provided information to ICAO for use in the database to alert about potential risks, Mr. Creamer said.

Eurocontrol, which manages European airspace, also established an information sharing tool and is now trying to make it easier to use, said Joe Sultana, the organization’s director of network management. Still, he said it was unclear how effective the new tools are in helping airlines make decisions on what airspace is safe to use.

Concerns about risks to flights were reinforced this month when Russia fired cruise missiles against targets in Syria. The missile traversed Iranian airspace in the vicinity of commercial airplanes without prior warning. Air safety regulators issued alerts to airlines about the event and some carriers changed their routes.

IATA’s Mr. Tyler also called for government to spell out rules that would ensure tighter control of weapons that could pose a threat to commercial airlines. He has called for the establishment of a regime similar to those in place to block the proliferation of nuclear weapons or limit the use of land mines.

Mr. Sultana said regulators are also grappling with another problem, determining when is it acceptable to label airspace safe again once it has been shut down. “It is very difficult to reopen an airspace,” he said. Experts are currently discussing with Ukraine the safety case for reopening some routes in the region.

Airline Safety Alerting System Created After MH17 Tragedy Seen as Lagging

By Robert Wall

DUBLIN—A global system to share information about threats to commercial airline flights established after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is still not robust enough, say airline regulators and industry officials, with government concerns about information still trumping security considerations.

But providing useful information needs to be done “a bit faster,” Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association that represents more than 200 carriers told reporters on Monday.

“Within the security areas of government there is a natural reluctance to share,” he said. However, he added, “what’s the point of having this information if it is not passed on.”

The Boeing Co. 777 jetliner was cruising at 33,000 feet in airspace the Ukrainian government had declared safe even after some military aircraft were brought down at lower altitudes during intense fighting between the country’s armed forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The Dutch safety board called for governments to be more active in reporting on threats and urged other countries also to alert carriers in case they see a threat outside their own borders.

“We know we need to refine the capabilities of the repository,” Stephen Creamer, director of ICAO’s Air Navigation Bureau told an aviation security conference here. The information in the online database is often delayed. It can take 72 hours or more for recommendations made by one member state about airspace in another country to become public, he said.

In the aftermath of the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane, some airspace is now regularly avoided by carriers as regulators have issued warnings about airspace in conflict zones. Flight routes between the Middle East and Europe have largely shifted from Iraqi airspace to traversing Iran. Many airlines also are avoiding Syrian airspace because of the fighting in the country.

About a half-dozen countries have so far provided information to ICAO for use in the database to alert about potential risks, Mr. Creamer said.

Eurocontrol, which manages European airspace, also established an information sharing tool and is now trying to make it easier to use, said Joe Sultana, the organization’s director of network management. Still, he said it was unclear how effective the new tools are in helping airlines make decisions on what airspace is safe to use.

Concerns about risks to flights were reinforced this month when Russia fired cruise missiles against targets in Syria. The missile traversed Iranian airspace in the vicinity of commercial airplanes without prior warning. Air safety regulators issued alerts to airlines about the event and some carriers changed their routes.

IATA’s Mr. Tyler also called for government to spell out rules that would ensure tighter control of weapons that could pose a threat to commercial airlines. He has called for the establishment of a regime similar to those in place to block the proliferation of nuclear weapons or limit the use of land mines.

Mr. Sultana said regulators are also grappling with another problem, determining when is it acceptable to label airspace safe again once it has been shut down. “It is very difficult to reopen an airspace,” he said. Experts are currently discussing with Ukraine the safety case for reopening some routes in the region.

Dutch Investigators Say MH17 Downed by Russian-Made Missile

By Ellen Proper, Paul Sonne, Robert Wall

GILZE-RIJEN AIR BASE, Netherlands—Investigators probing the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 concluded that a sophisticated, Russia-made antiaircraft missile struck the Boeing 777 jetliner, causing it to break apart in midair before the wreckage plummeted for up to a minute and a half to the ground.

The Buk missile was fired from eastern Ukraine, said Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, which on Tuesday published its final report into the 2014 crash that killed all 298 people on board.

The crash investigators weren’t assigning blame for who fired the missile. Further forensic analysis would be required to determine the exact launch location within a 320-square-kilometer (124-square-mile) area, Mr. Joustra said, adding that such efforts lay outside the scope of the crash probe. A map included in the report centered around the rebel-held city of Snizhne.

A separate criminal probe investigating culpability is continuing. The Dutch National Public Prosecution Service said its probe, which will run into next year, so far echoes the crash report. “Persons of interest” key to the investigation have been identified, it said, without giving details. It added that investigating and eventually arresting perpetrators can take time.

Accident investigators also concluded that the Ukrainian government should have closed the airspace over the embattled east where the country’s armed forces were battling the separatists. Mr. Joustra said there were sufficient indications commercial flights were at risk after several military planes were shot down.

The head of Ukraine’s air-traffic control service rejected that argument. Before the downing of Flight 17 “no one could imagine that such powerful facilities, powerful equipment such as a Buk could be used against civil aircraft,” Dmytro Babeichuk said at a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine.

The Dutch Safety Board urged governments and airlines to do more to reduce the risk of flying over conflict areas, arguing in its 279-page report that the current system “does not work as it should.” It issued several recommendations for change, adding momentum to a global push to share information about hazards to commercial flights.

Since the downing of Flight 17, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations’ air-safety arm, set up a centralized system to share information on conflict zones. Europe’s air-safety regulator also has tried to get national intelligence agencies to better disclose information about possible threats to commercial flights.

Mr. Babeichuk reiterated that call. “There are no unified, world-wide practices about the total closure of the airspace in such areas,” he said, pointing to Syria, “where the airspace still is not closed completely.”

The Dutch agency is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash because 193 Dutch citizens were on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed while cruising at 33,000 feet on July 17, 2014.

Even after investigators finish their probe, finding justice through the international system could be difficult. Russia in July vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to establish a criminal tribunal to investigate the downing.

Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said his country and other states are trying to set up an independent international court to prosecute those found responsible. “Our fight for justice is far from over,” he said.

Many family and friends of passengers said the probe didn’t provide the comfort they hoped for and voiced fears that those responsible would never be punished.

“I’m afraid this will become a political game that will never result in the prosecution of the perpetrators,” said Sigrid Huisman, whose friend Tamara Ernst was headed to Bali for a backpacking trip. “Are these people still even traceable?”

Dutch authorities established the type of missile based on the pattern of distinctively shaped fragments found in both the wreckage and the bodies from the cockpit. Investigators concluded those fragments match only a specific type of Buk warhead.

The Russian maker of the antiaircraft missile, Almaz-Antey, tried to cast doubt on the Dutch findings in advance. It invited hundreds of journalists Tuesday morning in a complex in outer Moscow, where Chief Executive Yan Novikov said its experiments showed that if MH17 was downed by a Buk system, it was by a different missile type than Dutch investigators specified, suggesting Ukraine was to blame.

The Dutch agency found that the missile warhead detonated outside the airplane on the left of the cockpit, spraying hundreds of fragments and killing the three crew members. The forward section of the plane then broke off as the jetliner lost structural integrity, Mr. Joustra said.

It took between a minute and 1½ minutes before the wreckage hit the ground. The report said investigators found no indications that passengers took “conscious actions” after impact. “There may have been reflexive actions such as clutching the armrests of the seat,” the report said.

The blast from the warhead was detected on the cockpit voice recorder.

Russia described the report as politically motivated. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists it reflected an “attempt to come to a biased conclusion and carry out political orders,” state news agency Tass reported.

No scenario other than the use of a Buk missile can explain the evidence, Mr. Joustra said. The main theory Russia propagated after the crash was that Ukrainian jet fighters shot down MH17, but Mr. Joustra said the wreckage showed clearly that an air-to-air attack didn’t down the Boeing 777.

Crash investigators said Malaysia Airlines complied with international air safety rules in planning the flight. Before the airspace was closed after the shootdown, 160 airliners traversed the skies of eastern Ukraine that day.

The airline said it welcomed the publication of the report and would continue to work with authorities and support families of those who died in the crash.

Last week, air safety authorities issued a warning to airlines after Russia fired a barrage of cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea against targets in Syria. Several carriers, including Malaysia Airlines, rerouted planes in response.

The Dutch Safety Board urged airlines to undertake their own risk assessments. “Operators will have to gather information about conflict areas more actively and share relevant information on threats with each other,” it said.

Governments that have information about potential threats should also do more to disseminate that information, crash investigators said. International rules on how risks are judged should be tightened, the investigators advised.

Photos of the Day: Oct. 13

Olympic gold medal ice dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis skated at the Rockefeller Center ice rink in New York on Tuesday, marking the official opening of the rink to the public for the winter season.

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which crashed in July 2014 in eastern Ukraine. Investigators in the Netherlands, without assigning blame, said Tuesday that a Russian-made antiaircraft missile struck the Boeing 777 jetliner.

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Ultra-Othodox Jews gathered for the funeral of 60-year old Yishaya Krashevsky on Tuesday. He was killed earlier in the day when a Palestinian drove a car into pedestrians waiting at a bus stop in Jerusalem, authorities said.

Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A Palestinian‘s clothes caught fire Tuesday as he threw a Molotov cocktail toward Israeli soldiers and border police during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Hazem Bader/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

An Indonesian Navy diver on Tuesday rescued the survivor of a helicopter crash in Lake Toba in Sumatra. The man was found alive, floating in the volcanic lake two days after the helicopter is believed to have crashed, officials said.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A small plane made an emergency landing on I-84 in Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday morning. There were no injuries. Idaho State Police said the plane landed on its belly after the pilot was unable to get the landing gear to engage.

Rebecca Boone/Associated Press

A police officer looked at the names of officers who have died in the line of duty during a rededication ceremony at the police Memorial Wall in New York City’s Battery Park on Tuesday.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Mourners grieved around the victim of a rockslide in Karachi, Pakistan, on Tuesday. At least 13 people were killed in the landslide, police said.

Athar Hussain/Reuters

A traffic sign outside the ruins of the Donetsk international airport in eastern Ukraine shows the results of months of intense fighting between government troops and Russian-backed separatists.

Aleksey Filippov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

People held oil lamps and prayed inside a temple during the Navratri festival in India on Tuesday.

MOSCOW—Russian state arms maker Almaz-Antey, producer of the Buk missile system, welcomed hundreds of journalists to an industrial park in outer Moscow on Tuesday, hours before Dutch authorities released their final report on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

The goal: To cast doubt on the Dutch probe’s results before they were even released. Slides, graphs and simulations were on offer. Pieces of shrapnel decorated the stage. The arms maker even cued up footage of an experiment conducted earlier this month, in which its specialists blasted the cockpit of an Ilyushin 86 aircraft with a Buk missile in a Russian field.

“The results of the experiment completely refuted the conclusions of the Dutch commission on the type of missile and the place of its launch,” said Almaz-Antey Chief Executive Jan Novikov, hours before the Dutch commission had released those conclusions.

In short, attendees slipped through the Russian looking glass, where information about MH17 consistently has opposed what most of the rest of the world has come to believe about the downing of the aircraft. Almaz-Antey’s presentation was then beamed across the country as the lead story in state newscasts, bringing the alternative reality to Russian homes.

Since the July 2014 disaster, Russia’s government, state media and main investigative body have advanced various arguments to undercut the primary theory confirmed Tuesday by the Dutch report, namely that a missile fired from a Buk system on rebel-held territory downed the Boeing 777.

The arguments Russia and its media have advanced have varied over time. In the hours after the crash, Russia’s First Channel suggested the crash resulted from a failed attempt by Ukraine’s military to strike Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane. Days later, Russia’s Defense Ministry suggested a Ukrainian jet fighter shot down the civilian aircraft. By the end of the year, Russia’s Investigative Committee reiterated that theory, saying it had interviewed an unnamed Ukrainian defector as verification. In its presentation Tuesday, Almaz-Antey suggested a Ukrainian-held Buk did the damage.

Despite the variance, all those theories have shared a common thread: Russia’s innocence. The result is that most Russians, some 15 months after the crash, believe an alternative version of events. In an August report, Russia’s Levada Center pollster found that with the exception of 4% to 5% of the population, public opinion on Ukraine was unanimous in rejecting any Russian responsibility for the conflict, including the downing of MH17. The majority of the country gets its news from state television.

On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a 9N314M warhead carried on a 9M38-series missile launched from a Buk struck MH17. The board’s chairman didn’t give an exact location of the launch, saying it was outside the scope of the investigation. But he showed an approximate launch area that encompassed rebel land near the city of Snizhne. Dutch officials ruled out the possibility of an air-to-air attack, based on radar at the time and marks on the wreckage.

Almaz-Antey argued that its simulation proved that the attack came from a different direction, closer to Ukrainian-held territory. It also said an older type of missile, which Russia’s military stopped operating but Ukraine’s armed forces continued to use, likely downed the Malaysian aircraft.

Defense experts questioned the Russian firm’s findings.

“The report released today by Russian missile maker Almaz-Antey should be discounted as disinformation and propaganda aimed at drawing attention away from the Dutch report,” Nick de Larrinaga, Europe Editor for IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, said in a statement. He cited evidence showing the older type of missile Almaz-Antey mentioned in fact “remained in Russian service and in Russian military stockpiles at the time of the shootdown.”

At the news conference itself a Dutch journalist asked Almaz-Antey whether its investigations into the Buk were akin to a “butcher testing the quality of his own meat.” Mr. Novikov said his company remained open to cooperating with international probes on the matter.

Regardless of its veracity, the Almaz-Antey presentation served as an antidote to the Dutch announcement for Russian state television all day on Tuesday, sowing doubt among Russian viewers. The 6 p.m. evening news on Russia’s state First Channel—among the most popular in the country—led with the Russian firm’s news conference instead of the Dutch Safety Board’s long-awaited results.

After a nearly six-minute segment on Almaz-Antey, the First Channel announcer sped through the Dutch Safety Board’s findings in about a minute before emphasizing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s objections and the report’s rebuke of Ukraine.

“The International Commission came to the conclusion that the airspace over south east Ukraine should have been closed before the tragedy, but the aviation authorities failed to adequately assess the risk for civilian airlines,” the First Channel news reader said. “As a result, dozens of airliners that flew through over the conflict zone weren’t informed about the danger.”

Why does Russia believe an alternative reality about #MH17? Today's state news buzz on Almaz-Antey is a case study: http://t.co/qUESMgi2zm

Russian Arms Maker Pre-empts Dutch Report With Presentation

By Paul Sonne

MOSCOW—Russian state arms maker Almaz-Antey, producer of the Buk missile system, welcomed hundreds of journalists to an industrial park in outer Moscow on Tuesday, hours before Dutch authorities released their final report on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

The goal: To cast doubt on the Dutch probe’s results before they were even released. Slides, graphs and simulations were on offer. Pieces of shrapnel decorated the stage. The arms maker even cued up footage of an experiment conducted earlier this month, in which its specialists blasted the cockpit of an Ilyushin 86 aircraft with a Buk missile in a Russian field.

“The results of the experiment completely refuted the conclusions of the Dutch commission on the type of missile and the place of its launch,” said Almaz-Antey Chief Executive Jan Novikov, hours before the Dutch commission had released those conclusions.

In short, attendees slipped through the Russian looking glass, where information about MH17 consistently has opposed what most of the rest of the world has come to believe about the downing of the aircraft. Almaz-Antey’s presentation was then beamed across the country as the lead story in state newscasts, bringing the alternative reality to Russian homes.

Since the July 2014 disaster, Russia’s government, state media and main investigative body have advanced various arguments to undercut the primary theory confirmed Tuesday by the Dutch report, namely that a missile fired from a Buk system on rebel-held territory downed the Boeing 777.

The arguments Russia and its media propagated have varied over time. In the hours after the crash, Russia’s First Channel suggested the crash resulted from a failed attempt by Ukraine’s military to strike Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plane. Days later, Russia’s Defense Ministry suggested a Ukrainian jet fighter shot down the civilian aircraft. By the end of the year, Russia’s Investigative Committee reiterated that theory, saying it had interviewed an unnamed Ukrainian defector as verification. In its presentation Tuesday, Almaz-Antey suggested a Ukrainian-held Buk did the damage.

Despite the variance, all those theories share a common thread: Russia’s innocence. The result is that most Russians, some 15 months after the crash, believe an alternative version of events. In an August report, Russia’s Levada Center pollster found that with the exception of 4% to 5% of the population, public opinion on Ukraine was unanimous in rejecting any Russian responsibility for the conflict, including the downing of MH17. The majority of the country gets its news from state television.

On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a 9N314M warhead carried on a 9M38-series missile struck MH17. The board’s chairman didn’t give an exact location of the launch, saying it was outside the scope of the investigation. But he showed an approximate launch area that encompassed rebel land near the city of Snizhne. Dutch officials ruled out the possibility of an air-to-air attack, based on radar at the time and marks on the wreckage.

Almaz-Antey argued that its simulation proved that the attack came from a different direction, closer to Ukrainian-held territory. It also said an older type of missile, which Russia’s military stopped operating but Ukraine’s armed forces continued to use, likely downed the Malaysian aircraft.

Defense experts questioned the Russian firm’s findings.

“The report released today by Russian missile maker Almaz-Antey should be discounted as disinformation and propaganda aimed at drawing attention away from the Dutch report,” Nick de Larrinaga, Europe Editor for IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, said in a statement. He cited evidence showing the older type of missile Almaz-Antey mentioned in fact “remained in Russian service and in Russian military stockpiles at the time of the shootdown.”

At the news conference itself a Dutch journalist asked Almaz-Antey whether its investigations into the Buk were akin to a “butcher testing the quality of his own meat.” Mr. Novikov said his company remained open to cooperating with international probes on the matter.

Regardless of its veracity, the Almaz-Antey presentation served as an antidote to the Dutch announcement for Russian state television all day on Tuesday, sowing doubt among Russian viewers. The 6 p.m. evening news on Russia’s state First Channel—among the most popular in the country—led with the Russian firm’s news conference instead of the Dutch Safety Board’s long-awaited results.

After a nearly six-minute segment on Almaz-Antey, the First Channel announcer sped through the Dutch Safety Board’s findings in about a minute before emphasizing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s objections and the report’s rebuke of Ukraine.

“The International Commission came to the conclusion that the airspace over south east Ukraine should have been closed before the tragedy, but the aviation authorities failed to adequately assess the risk for civilian airlines,” the First Channel news reader said. “As a result, dozens of airliners that flew through over the conflict zone weren’t informed about the danger.”